Takamori Spring Tunnel Park

photo by Tzu-hsun, Hsu · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by masamic · CC BY-SA 3.0

Unfinished railway tunnel, stopped by water: you walk 550 m of it at 17 °C.

You go down stairs at the mouth of an unfinished railway tunnel and walk for about 550 metres in air that stays at 17 °C all year. At the end is the ‘Water Pearl’ (ウォーターパール), a fountain in which sound waves and lights make the drops look suspended. In July the walls are covered with decorations for Tanabata, the star festival, and in December with Christmas lights.

The bore was meant to be part of a 6,480 m tunnel joining the Takamori line (today the Minami-Aso Railway) to the Takachiho line. Work is reported to have begun in 1973; in 1975 a strong inflow of water about 2,000 m from the entrance was followed by others, and in 1980 the excavation, which had reached 2,055 m, was suspended. The tunnel releases about 32 tonnes of water a minute, used by the municipality for drinking water and irrigation. In 1994 the part near the exit, about 550 m of the roughly 2 km excavated, was opened to the public. Inside there is also the 湧水館 (Yūsuikan), a small water museum.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–18:00 from April to October and 9:00–17:00 from November to March; ticket 300 yen from junior high school up, 100 yen for elementary school, free below (gltjp.com, overseen by the municipality of Takamori, updated 08/09/2025). The 湧水館 museum is closed on Mondays (open if a public holiday) and has its own hours, 9:00–16:00. You go down by stairs; a 2025 review notes that wheelchairs are available from the car park, and along the route there are benches for resting. From Takamori Station on the Minami-Aso Railway it is about 10 minutes on foot (gltjp; Wikipedia gives 14). After the earthquake of 28/07/2026 no official page gives its status: to confirm, phone 0967-62-3331.

🚉 Takamori · 8 min walk

Sources: gltjp.com · ja.wikipedia.org · jalan.net

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